Ontario and the federal government will give McMaster University $22 million, some of it to help produce medical isotopes, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement said Friday.
Speaking at the university in Hamilton, Ont., Clement said the funding was not connected to the recent shutdown of the Chalk River nuclear reactor, which provides about half of the world's supply of medical isotopes used to detect cancer and heart ailments.
A heavy water leak has closed the 52-year-old facility, located northwest of Ottawa, for about three months, causing a worldwide shortage of isotopes. The tiny particles of radioactive material have a limited shelf life.
The McMaster reactor is the only Canadian one outside of Chalk River's NRU reactor capable of producing the isotopes.
"This application … did come in several weeks ago, I guess maybe even a couple months ago," said Clement.
"This was a parallel process independent of the status with things at Chalk River, but I think it does send the message out that we can be part of the solution here in Canada, here at this site at McMaster on an ongoing and future basis."
The funding announced Friday will help pay for upgrades to McMaster's Nuclear Research Building, expand Canada's isotope research and production capacity, enhance research activities and train personnel for the nuclear industry and health care sectors, according to the university.
McMaster's 50-year-old reactor produces iodine-125 for prostate cancer treatment, and small amounts of other istopes that rapidly decay. It helped to supply isotopes during a planned shutdown at Chalk River in the 1970s.
Brink of disaster
Medical isotopes from McMaster and other replacement sources are all "years away," said Dr. Christopher O'Brien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine, noting the safety and effectiveness of these approaches needs to be shown.
"Our medical isotope supply is stretched thin, is vulnerable and is teetering on the brink of disaster," O'Brien said in an interview Friday with CBC News.
To ration the supply of medical isotopes, hospitals across Canada and the U.S. are switching to using another readily available isotope, thallium 201, for cardiac imaging tests.
The advice to switch from reactor-based isotopes to thallium from cyclotrons around the world came from federal and provincial commitees following the 2007 shutdown of the Chalk River reactor.
There is no increased radiation risk to patients, and it will likely produce similar quality images, but is more expensive than the technetium-99 isotope normally supplied by Chalk River, O'Brien said.
The Saskatoon Health Region has already cancelled 70 bones scans because of the shortage.
The region has placed an order and is negotiating with suppliers to get isotopes for next week, said Corey Miller, head of diagnostic imaging for the region.
With files from The Canadian Press